Dead.

Apr 07

Yesterday afternoon, with the full moon in full effect, I read my class Scaredy Squirrel. That’s just how brave I am.

For the uninitiated, Scaredy Squirrel is a little guy who is afraid of the unknown… so petrified in fact that he staying in his nut tree for fear of what might be lurking out in the world. He makes lots of plans to stay safe incase of disaster (martians, killer bees, sharks, etc.), but really, he does a whole lot of nothing.

The book is hilarious. When the unthinkable happens and Scaredy is forced out of his tree, his failsafe backup plan is always to play dead. We had a long discussion about what ‘playing dead’ means and the illustrations of Scaredy laying perfectly still for two hours before (gasp!) opening a single eye had us giggling up a storm.

After the book, we headed outside for recess. As I came around the playground, I saw Henry laying on the ground… playing dead. He was doing a really good job too. His limbs were motionless and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

Naturally, when I saw this and commented, “Oh my, it’s Scaredy Squirrel playing dead!” a slew of other sprouts came running over and played dead… it wasn’t the most active retelling of the story I’ve ever seen, but it was pretty funny.